Q: Guruji we have heard the terms spirituality and enlightenment so often. There are very abstract definitions of the terms. Would you please throw some light on these? Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: (Jokingly) You want me to add more confusion to the words and give you one more definition! If I have a choice I would take away all the definitions and leave you in confusion because from that confusion something flowers up in you. My understanding is not going to help you. It has to come from within you. When you wake up and see, you will be surprised. I would like you to experience that WOW. Don’t make it a concept. If you don’t know what enlightenment is, thank God and say ‘ I don’t know what enlightenment is. Let me wait for it.’ It is the concepts that keep us away from experiencing the reality. That’s what I feel.

Prayag where Ganga, Yamuna and Saraswati meet, is the unity of love and knowledge.

Where love and knowledge meet, celebration happens.

Kumbh means the coming together of saints, scholars and katha vachaks. They discuss and meditate with the sankalpa that let all the people benefit. People needn’t go to all the places. They can come to one place. The concept of mela started in India. Nowadays we call it expo. There are expos for motors, books, clothes, to present all the products in one place.So also, all the saints congregate in a place once in 12 years. In those days transport facilities were so extensive and traveling would take so much time. Kumbh provided an opportunity for people for dialogue and exchange of knowledge.

If you see it from planetary perspective, when Jupiter enters Aquarius, Kumbh happens.By bathing in the Ganges the chitta (consciousness) becomes happy. The sins are washed away. It's so beautiful. The sins are so superficial that just by a dip in the Ganges they can be washed away. The ever-pure consciousness can never be dirtied.